The three principles of cooking meat, browning, cooking and seasoning, are extremely important when it comes to doing justice to a good steak. The cooking time will depend to a great extent on the thickness of the steak more than anything else. To what degree you will want to cook it will depend on both the type of steak and your personal taste. A fillet steak will take very little cooking for it to be palatable and will spoil if overcooked, where a ribeye steak will benefit from longer cooking.

The browning stage of cooking steak will be more effective with a larger surface area and so for thicker steaks you may want to give them a bash with a heavy object (the cast iron frying pan that’s ideal for cooking steaks will do this job very well). Flattening out will result in an increased surface area and a reduced thickness. This will help with browning and also reduce cooking time. You may also like to try creating a criss cross pattern in the steak with a sharp knife as this will also increase the surface area exposed to the pan. Browning the steak in a very hot pan will add flavour in the same way that flavour is added by roasting coffee or toasting marshmallows.

The great thing about cast iron is that once it reaches a high temperature it will keep that heat very well. However, it does take much longer to get to temperature compared to aluminium or steel. Another thing to aware of is that your steak can stick and burn if the pan isn’t seasoned.

Season your steak when it’s in the pan and hot enough to dissolve the salt. Good quality sea salt is great, but if it’s not fine, you’ll need to give it a good pounding in a pestle and mortar or grind it to prevent it clumping in the pan. I like to use a combination of sea salt and smoked sea salt, but just enough to bring out the natural flavour of the steak. Pepper and other spices are best added at the end of cooking to stop them burning.

How you like your steak will depend on your own personal preferences and there seems to be no real definition as one person’s rare is another person’s medium. A good guide if you’re unsure, and if your steak’s thick enough, is to use a temperature probe. As a guide 40°c would be rare and 70°c well done.

SEASONING A CAST IRON PAN

Place the pan over high heat until it reaches a medium temperature (around 5 minutes at high heat). Put a dollop of beef dripping or oil into the pan and move it around to coat. Then remove the pan from heat and allow it to cool. When the pan has cooled enough, wipe it to remove any excess.

Our delivery service allows you to pick a delivery date in advance when you reach the checkout.

Next day delivery is free on orders over £45.

Our deliveries are Tuesday to Friday as standard and we also offer a Saturday delivery as a premium service, but this is unfortunately an expensive option, so it’s much better to try and plan ahead.

Your order will be kept fresh in our insulated boxes and the box can be used as storage for larger cuts if you replace or re-freeze the ice sheets. This comes in very handy when you don’t have enough room in your fridge on busy special occasions.

Most of the meat we sell is at it’s best the day it’s delivered to you and will have a limited period within which you can use it. The exception to this is beef, where the flavour and texture may become better from a few days or more of ageing in the fridge, depending on the cut and your particular taste.

It is best to keep all raw meat as close to freezing point as possible, our recommendation is below 3°c. Keep your meat in the coldest part of the fridge. If your meat came in a vacuum pack, it can be kept in this until you’re ready to use it. If it came in a shrink wrapped tray, then remove from the tray, pat dry with paper towel and re-wrap in cling film or keep in a sealed container.

You should cook your meat within a few days if it’s a larger cut. If it’s minced or diced it should be cooked within a day or so of arrival. Meats in a larger cut with hard fat such as beef, mutton and lamb will keep best.

If you want to keep your meat for longer the best option is freezing. This should be done as soon as possible after the meat has arrived. If the meat has arrived in a vacuum pack from us this will be perfect for freezing unopened.

Beef and lamb will keep for up to a year when frozen properly. Pork will keep for 6 months and poultry for 3 months.

Keep in mind that freezing meat will cause changes in the quality and structure. Ice crystals will form and this will cause moisture loss. The freezer can cause damage to the surface of the meat, known as freezer burn, that will make the meat taste off.

Freeze meat as fast as possible in a freezer at a very low temperature. If possible keep in the vacuum pack that it arrived in. If re-wrapping try to avoid any air pockets and wrap as tightly as possible. For smaller cuts of meat and mince etc, keep the portion size as small as possible and wrap in a number of layers of good quality bags or cling film. If possible use a final layer of paper or foil to prevent exposure to light.

DRY AGEING BEEF IN THE FRIDGE
For some larger cuts of beef, you can keep them in the fridge at home covered loosely with some paper (ideally on a rack to allow air to circulate).

WHAT CAUSES PROBLEMS?
The main causes of problems are oxygen and light, microbes and bacteria and warm temperatures. Microbes are always present on the surface of meat regardless of the source and quality.

Delivery Restrictions

Unfortunately we are currently unable to provide a delivery service to offshore islands and some areas in Scotland. This is due to the time sensitive nature of our products which must be delivered within 24 hours. Details Here